Bad news: Ben Affleck’s bummed out by politics

posted at 12:51 pm on March 25, 2016 by Ed Morrissey

Well, who isn’t depressed about it? One party seems intent on nominating a candidate who might have to pardon herself upon taking office, and the other party’s top contenders are currently in a public debate over who has the hottest spouse. [Update: Or worse.] CBS’ This Morning welcomed a gloomy Ben Affleck to the set to discuss Batman v Superman, and to share his ennui with the political process:

The talk drifts into “the need for a superhero” and politics, and Affleck’s work with Starbucks to tell “a different story of America.” That led to this discussion:

“God, the political climate,” he said on “CBS This Morning” on Friday. “There is little more that I find more depressing than the political climate these days.

“What I will say about it is that it’s so disappointing,” he continued.

“When you go around the world and you travel to places that don’t have a functioning democracy – and there’s still so many places like this, where people are sacrificing and striving and struggling just to have freedom of speech, just to vote – and you see what we seem to be squandering this election year.”

Point taken. But perhaps we can now talk about the depressing amount of comic-book movies from Hollywood, and its reliance on deus ex machina characters who pander to the simplistic. Affleck will argue rightly that consumers respond to these films as the reason why studios produce them — they are responding to a market impulse that favors this genre to the point of crowding out other material. And that would be a fair point, and a good reason for Affleck to participate in that response.

Now, remind me … how and why is that different than the political environment this year?